a. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to the general field of providing protection to law enforcement, emergency and military personnel upon encountering an imminent need for assistance or rescue. More particularly, the present invention includes a method and system for such personnel in danger who activate an upwardly, non-horizontally powerful light source to alert other law enforcement, emergency and military personnel in the area of the need for immediate assistance. The present invention provides rapid visual location of the light source which is located on the roof of personnel vehicles and directs at least one upward, non-horizontal beam of light.
b. Description of Related Art
The prior art is replete with distress signaling devices, emergency lights and the like for use by law enforcement personnel and private citizens. As far as the present inventor is aware, however, there is no disclosure in the prior art of a system for an officer, emergency response personnel or military personnel to remotely activate a distress beacon secured to an emergency, military or police vehicle to signal to other personnel that one is in need of immediate assistance. The most relevant prior art known to the inventor is as follows. The following patents are representative of distress signal series:
U.S. Pat. No. 3,290,597 issued to G. R. Denny et al. on Dec. 6, 1966, entitled, “Emergency Assistance Radio Signaling System,” discloses a system for sending a distress signal to a central station using either a battery powered portable transmitter or a vehicle mounted transmitter. The portable transmitter is used to send a signal to radio equipment in the officer's vehicle, which then transmits a distress signal to a central station. The signal may be a message identifying the officer who sent the signal, and may be recorded just before the officer leaves the vehicle in order to convey the basic situation the officer is about to enter. No means for visually identifying the location of the officer's vehicle is provided, however.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,469,235 issued to E. C. Devlin et al. on Sep. 23, 1969, entitled “Vehicle Warning Light and Device,” discloses a distress or warning light mounted to the outside of a passenger vehicle that can be activated by any occupant of the vehicle to alert those outside of an emergency situation occurring within the vehicle. While Devlin therefore teaches a vehicle distress light, such light is not in the form of a beacon to be activated by law enforcement officers to indicate their location to other officers either responding to a distress call or who happen to be in the vicinity, but otherwise would have no knowledge of the distress situation.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,601,797 issued to R. H. O'Connor on Aug. 24, 1971, entitled “Illuminated Distress Signal Device,” discloses a distress signal in the form of a balloon mounted on a base containing a light that is temporarily secured to the roof of a motor vehicle. In an emergency, the balloon is placed in the base, blown up, the base is placed on the vehicle roof, and a cord is plugged into a power source such as the vehicle cigarette lighter to activate the light. While useful for its particular intended purpose, such signaling device obviously would not be practical for use by law enforcement officers encountering an armed criminal or the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,723,725 issued to R. O. Jaeger on Mar. 27, 1973, entitled “Beacon Signaling Device,” discloses an improved signaling device of a type that is to be mounted to the roof of an emergency vehicle having a light source surrounded by a colored outer housing. The outer housing has at least one transparent aperture that divides the housing into separate colored sections so that in use the light emits colored light in the red/blue/amber emergency colors through the housing, but also emits a white light with a brightness and intensity that is not diminished by passing through the colored housing. Such light is illustrative of the large number of rotating beacon type emergency signal lights found in the prior art that are primarily designed to notify others that an emergency vehicle is on its way, rather than for use by law officers only upon encountering a life or death situation.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,863,999 issued to P. O. Muller on Feb. 4, 1975, entitled “Detachable Warning Light,” discloses another vehicle emergency signaling device including both an audible alarm and flashing light in a housing mounted somewhere on the vehicle's exterior.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,947,815 issued to H. M. Muncheryan on Mar. 30, 1976, entitled “Automobile Emergency-Alerting System,” discloses another system by which an occupant of a vehicle can signal to those outside the vehicle that assistance is needed, in this case by activating a “HELP” sign mounted on the outside of the vehicle using a remote control or manual switch in the vehicle. Such signal is designed to notify those outside of a vehicle of trouble occurring within the vehicle, although it could notify those passing by of trouble occurring in the immediate vicinity outside the vehicle as well. The “HELP” sign mounted on the vehicle trunk and facing rearwardly is not highly visible in the same manner as an upwardly directed light beams of the distress beacon contemplated by the present inventor.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,058,794 issued to W. K. Menke on Nov. 15, 1977, entitled “Vehicle Beacon Control System,” discloses a light control system for an emergency vehicle, wherein the conventional rotating beacons on the roof of the vehicle also are provided with side-facing flood lights which can be controlled independently of the rotating beacons and used as search lights. Such lights are not designed to be used as a distress signal, however.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,606,073 issued to A. Z. Moore on Aug. 12, 1986, entitled “Assistance Summoning System,” discloses, similar to the Denny '597 patent discussed above, a system for a law enforcement officer to summon assistance comprised of a portable transceiver device that when activated signals or sends a prerecorded emergency message in a receiver device in the officer's vehicle to be transmitted to a central station. While such systems are useful in transmitting an emergency signal to those in radio communication with the officer in distress, there is no means for visually signaling the location of the officer's vehicle and that he or she is in distress to those not in communication with the officer.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,847,589 issued to H. L. Dobbins on Jul. 11, 1989, entitled “Visual and Auditory Signaling System,” discloses a manually actuated emergency visual and audible signaling device wherein the nature of the help required can be signaled by varying the signaling sequence. Such device could be either handheld or attached to a vehicle body, and includes separate green and amber lights, which can be used to indicate that the user needs assistance by a “Need Help” indication, that there is a medical emergency, or that “Help is on the Way”. Such device would not be useful, however, for emitting an upwardly directed highly visible beacon light distress signal to indicate that a law enforcement officer is in distress.
U.S. Pat. No. RE 34,677 issued to D. K. Ray et al. on Jul. 26, 1994 entitled “Automatic Emergency Locator System and Method,” discloses an emergency response locator system for use in combination with the conventional “911” emergency call system, wherein when a “911” emergency call is placed, the system causes a strobe light at the address of the call to start flashing, to lead emergency personnel to the exact location more quickly. While there are numerous prior art systems including visual indicators to aid emergency personnel in finding the location of a “911” call, none of such systems could be used in the same manner as the distress signaling device of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,389,935 issued to D. Dronault et al. on Feb. 14, 1995, entitled “Automatic System for Locating and Identifying Vehicles in Distress,” discloses a system for locating vehicles in distress wherein when a radio distress signal is sent from a vehicle upon the occurrence of an emergency situation, a network of direction finders situated at various locations measures the angle of arrival of the distress signal, which may be a radiogoniometer, and a computer system interprets such information to determine the location of the vehicle and to contact and direct rescue teams to the site of such vehicle. Dronault does not disclose the use of a pinpointing light distress beacon system, however.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,422,632 issued to J. F. Bader et al. on Jun. 6, 1995, entitled “Programmable Emergency Signaling Device and System,” discloses an emergency vehicle light signaling system that can be programmed to emit light in various patterns to provide a particular signal or warning. Such light patterns are indicated as being either stationary or rational, and the light beams emitted can be either narrow beams or wide beams. Although such lights can be variably programmed, a light signaling system that emits a distress signal light beacon which can be activated remotely by an officer encountering a life threatening situation is not disclosed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,892,439 issued to R. E. Molina Torres et al. on Apr. 6, 1999, entitled “Vehicle Warning and Help Apparatus and Method,” discloses a warning system comprised of a light box mounted inside a vehicle and electrically connected to a control panel, with the light box housing red and yellow lights that are visible through the vehicle windshield and a horn which is mounted in a vehicle window or the like. The device can be activated either automatically in the event of an accident or manually, and may signal various conditions ranging from maximum to minimum alert. Such arrangement is primarily designed to alert oncoming traffic to the presence of an emergency and to proceed cautiously, rather than to alert all of those people within view of an upwardly directed spotlight to a law enforcement officer in need of immediate assistance, however.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,549,121 issued to P. F. Povey et al. on Apr. 15, 2003, entitled “Illuminated Emergency Signaling Device,” discloses a battery powered emergency LED light secured in a housing and designed to aid rescue or emergency personnel in initially locating an emergency site or warning of an emergency condition. The main improvement of the Povey emergency beacon or signal appears to be a plastic race (18) surrounding the light which reflects such light so that it is emitted around the periphery of the device.
U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2002/0070929 filed by W. C. Hunter and published on Jun. 13, 2002, entitled “Emergency Assistance Device,” discloses a light assembly which when activated by a remote control unit flashes a distress message and emits a siren or alarm to indicate to emergency personnel the address or location of a dwelling in which an occupant needs assistance, in response to a “911” call or the like. Many patents containing variations of this basic theme can be found in the prior art.
U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2005/0099317 filed by J. C. Pederson and published on May 12, 2005, entitled “LED Light Bar,” discloses a multiple LED light warning signal system for use by police or other emergency personnel, in which rows of LED lights are mounted on a base. Pederson discloses numerous different embodiments of such invention, and any number of different types of light signals may be emitted by such device, including both portable and vehicle mounted versions. While Pederson discloses use of the device as a spotlight, it does not appear that an upwardly pointing distress beacon light is disclosed or suggested. See also several related applications, including U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2005/0259434 published on Nov. 24, 2005, entitled “LED Light Stick Assembly.”
Overall, therefore, while the prior art contains a large number of distress signaling devices, emergency warning lights and systems, and location assistance systems and methods, there remains a need for a distress or emergency signaling system and method that enables law enforcement personnel, as well as others such as military personnel, security guards, and the like who while on patrol or duty and suddenly encounter a condition where they are placed in imminent danger of a serious bodily injury occurring to send a distress signal that will be recognized as such not only by law enforcement personnel working for the same force, department or agency as the officer in danger, but also by law enforcement personnel from other departments or agencies as well as off-duty police officers who may be in the immediate vicinity and are able to provide assistance quickly, but whom otherwise would have no knowledge of such imminent danger to an officer and thus likely would not attempt to assist the officer. The distress signal therefore in addition must be highly visually perceptible and distinguishable from conventional emergency signals, lights, and the like, and the signal must be understood by federal, state and local personnel as identifying an officer in distress and thus also aid in help more quickly reaching the site. The present inventor has through significant personal experience as a law enforcement officer recognized such need, and as a result has developed an emergency distress beacon or signaling system that is mounted to the officer's patrol vehicle or the like and electrically connected to a control device which can be activated either manually in the vehicle or remotely via a portable activator or signaling device, and which if desired may be incorporated into the conventional radio signaling device already in use by officers in a particular station or department. Then, in a scenario where or when the officer believes he or she is in a possibly life threatening situation or in imminent danger of serious bodily harm or injury, the signaling device is used to activate the distress beacon, which activates a strong upwardly directed beam of light that is visible to those in the immediate vicinity both during the day and night. Furthermore, the signal device is visible underwater. The distress beacon will preferably be in the emergency colors already known and used by most law enforcement offers, and will be recognized as a distress call or signal by officers from different municipalities or departments not in radio communications with the officer in distress, which available officers can then respond to.
Notwithstanding the prior art, the present invention is neither taught nor rendered obvious thereby